Matt Renshaw talked the talk then walked the walk at the MCG – and it was only fitting the spinner’s BBL feat came from the Shane Warne Stand end.
While the delivery and dismissal were not as breathtaking, Renshaw had his own Warne moment on Monday night, revealing a plan while mic’d up on Fox Cricket that came off the next ball during the Brisbane Heat’s clash against the Melbourne Stars.
With Melbourne 2-62 after a 14-run over, Renshaw was caught off-guard when he was asked to bowl the 10th over of the innings.
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“Wasn’t expecting this one talking to you guys,” Renshaw told the Fox Cricket commentators.
The part-time off-spinner, who’d only bowled two overs in BBL12 prior to Monday night’s match, came around the wicket to Stars opener Tom Rogers from the Warne Stand end.
Asked what his plan was to Rogers, Renshaw said: “I’m just trying to go slow, get into my over here to the leftie.”
Seconds later, Renshaw threw up a full, loopy ball outside off-stump. Rogers attempted to heave the ball through the off-side, only to edge it in the air to short third man where Josh Brown took a simple catch.
Renshaw could hardly wipe the smile off his face after taking a wicket with his first ball.
“That’s exactly what I wanted,” a beaming Renshaw said.
Aussie legend Adam Gilchrist was impressed in the commentary box.
“How good was that? It was a nicely flighted delivery. Just a tempter first ball, throwing down something with not a huge amount of pace on it,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.
“A lot of batters might’ve been expecting one to be darted into the pitch.”
It comes 12 years after the late great Warne turned Nostradamus and freakishly predicted how he’d get then-Heat batter Brendon McCullum out at The Gabba.
“He might try to shape to sweep one after that first one, or maybe even go inside out again a bit harder. So I might try and slide one in there … fast,” Warne said at the time.
The leg-spin legend then sent down a delivery that bamboozled McCullum and bowled him around the legs.
Renshaw proceeded to talk through his strategy for the remaining five balls of his over, with new Stars batter Nick Larkin facing the next delivery.
“‘Larko’ likes to cut, so I’ll come around the wicket, try to cramp him up a little bit. I’ve left a couple of men up to see if he wants to take a risk really early at 3-60,” he said.
The ball was a touch too full though, allowing Larkin to hit it down to long-on for a single.
Before the next delivery to Beau Webster, Renshaw said: “I’ll go over to Beau. He likes to use his reach and hit through cover, so if I can try and bowl outside off, probably at normal pace to start with.”
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Webster took a single down to long-off.
But Renshaw said his main job for the rest of the over was to keep the runs to a minimum, considering he was an off-spinner bowling to two right-handers.
The result was a tidy 1-5 off his sole over for the innings.
